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What if Don Bluth stayed at Disney?/An American Tale: Anne-Marie Goes West
An American Tale: Anne-Marie Goes West is a 1991 American animated adventure family comedy-drama western film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It is directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells, produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 1986 Disney animated film An American Tale, and the last installment in the series to be released theatrically. Two direct-to-video sequels were released in the late 1990s. Don Bluth, the original film's director, had no involvement with this one. Instead, it was directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells. The film tells the story of Anne-Marie (voiced by Cathy Cavadini, replacing the late Judith Barsi) with her family and animal friends Tanya (also voiced by Cavadini, replacing Amy Green), Itchy and Tiger (both voiced by Dom DeLuise, reprising his dual role from the first film) who emigrate to the Wild West. In it, Anne-Marie is separated from her family (again) as the train approaches the American Old West; the film chronicles her, her brother Fievel (voiced by Phillip Glasser, reprising his role from the first film), Itchy and Sheriff Wylie Burp (voiced by James Stewart in his final film) teaching Tiger how to act like a dog. It performed modestly at the box office grossing $40 million and received mixed reviews from critics. Plot Cast *Cathy Cavadini as Anne-Marie Moskowitz and Tanya *Phillip Glasser as Fievel Moskowitz *Dom DeLuise as Itchy Itchiford and Tiger *James Stewart as Wylie Burp *John Cleese as Cat R. Waul *Amy Irving as Miss Kitty *Jon Lovitz as T.R. Chula *Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Moskowitz *Erica Yohn as Mama Moskowitz Production Production begun in early 1989, after the releases of Oliver and Company and The Land Before Time. Don Bluth, who directed the original film, was originally intended to direct the sequel, but he turned down due to his work on Beauty and the Beast and Rock-A-Doodle, which Jeffrey Katzenberg instead relied on Phil Nibbelink, a Disney animator who made additional animation to the original film, and Simon Wells, the great-grandson of science-fiction author H. G. Wells, to direct the project. The Frankie Laine song "Rawhide" is played at the tumbleweed scene, although the version used is from The Blues Brothers. This sequence was designed and laid-out by an uncredited Alan Friswell, a special effects expert and stop-motion animator who was employed by the studio at the time, and is better-known for his work on the Virgin Interactive Entertainment Mythos computer game, Magic and Mayhem (1998), his restoration work for the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation as well as his many model creations and magazine articles for publications such as Fortean Times, among others. In addition to a new voice actress, the character of Tanya was heavily redesigned as well. Instead of her red babushka headdress and blue and yellow dress, she wore a different colored dress and was given bangs and a ponytail and she was a couple inches taller than she was in the original film. Tiger also underwent minor changes (such as removing the "M" from his shirt), as did baby Yasha, Fievel, Itchy and Anne-Marie. In Anne-Marie Goes West, both Anne-Marie and Tanya were voiced by Cathy Cavadini, who would later go on to voice Blossom in The Powerpuff Girls. According to Don Bluth, there was Amy Green initially planned to reprise her role as Tanya but left the project, so Cavadini replaced her. James Horner returned to write the score to the film, reusing old themes and introducing new ones. Amy Irving, who voiced Miss Kitty in the film, was Spielberg's ex-wife. During production, he married Kate Capshaw who had worked with him on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984. Tony Orsoni and Bridget were suponsed to appear in this film but were dropped, because of Tony's voice actress, Pat Musick, voiced several characters for dozen TV shows while the film was in production. Tony and Bridget were dropped from the sequel, as the characters had yet to return until later in the third installment, An American Tail: In Search of Gabriel's Horn, in 1996. John Lithgow and Martin Short were considered to play Cat R. Waul and T.R. Chula, but Jon Lovitz signed to play Chula and John Cleese turned down the role as Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and returned from the first An American Tale film (which he previously voiced both Gooster McGoose and Dr. Owl) to play Cat R. Waul. Music The soundtrack was composed by James Horner and includes "Dreams to Dream", which was nominated for a Golden Globe award. "Dreams to Dream" was based on a short instrumental piece from the original film. Track listing # "Dreams to Dream (end credits version)" – Linda Ronstadt # "American Tale Overture (Main Title)" # "Anne-Marie's Dream" # "Burglar Attack" # "Headin' Out West" # "Way Out West" # "Green River/Trek Through the Desert" # "Dreams to Dream (film version)" – Cathy Cavadini # "Building a New Town" # "Sacred Mountain" # "Reminiscing" # "The Girl You Left Behind" – Cathy Cavadini # "In Training"* # "The Shoot-Out" # "A New Land/The Future" (*a close parody of Aaron Copland's "Hoe-Down" theme, adapting the film's leitmotifs) Score cues left off the soundtrack # Tiger and Itchy Chase the Train # Animal Burger Plot # The Flying Aaaaah/Tiger and Itchy's Chase Continues # Puttin' On the Ritz (movie version) # Four Old Friends Reunited # Rawhide - Blues Brothers # Saloon Music # Wylie Burp/More Like a Dog # The Shoot-Out (movie version) # The River Returns/Celebration Reception Critical response The film received mixed reviews from film critics. Halliwell's Film Guide gave it two stars out of four, with this comment: "Enjoyable and high-spirited animated film that borrows plot and attitudes from classic Westerns, but have "lack of heart" compared to the original Tale." Roger Ebert gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "There is nothing really the matter with An American Tale: Anne-Marie Goes West, except that it is not inspired with an extra spark of imagination in addition to its competent entertainment qualities". The New York Times wrote "The film is really a bland, randomly connected series of adventures involving Anne-Marie, her family, Tanya, Itchy, Tiger and Miss Kitty, a sultry barroom chanteuse. While the quality of the animation is above average, the film's visualization of the American West is surprisingly dull. The movie has little narrative drive or emotional resonance, and its final action sequences seem perfunctory and tacked on." 45% of critics gave it a positive reception on Rotten Tomatoes. Box office Accolades Media Home media Theme parks Trivia * This film, The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland, The Jungle Book 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet and Frozen II are the only Disney sequels that are part of the Disney Animated Canon, as they were all theatrically released and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.